4.1 – Reborn

Lady Romanadvoratrelundar has returned to her homeworld, seeking a cure for the Free Time virus that rages across the planet.

Leela of the Sevateem and her companion K-9 are revered as heroes. Narvin is a traitor. And Braxiatel knows more than he’s letting on.

Amidst all the confusion, the High Council of Time Lords is poised to take the planet into an all-consuming war against the cosmos. They’re selling their secrets to the highest bidder, equipping the universe with temporal technology it should never have been allowed.

And Romana’s son will lead them into battle…

1 Comment

Styre
on May 9, 2016 at 11:17 PM

GALLIFREY: REBORN

I was not a fan of Big Finish’s Gallifrey series: while it provided some further adventures for characters like Romana, Leela, and K9, it failed to do anything interesting with the unlimited storytelling potential of Gallifreyan civilization. By the time the third series was over, everything had fallen into chaos and the principal characters had fled the planet – and the series ended on a cliffhanger, the seeds sown for a sequel. That was in 2006, but the sequel did not arrive until 2011, when Gallifrey IV was finally released in box set form. The first episode, “Reborn,” spends the first five minutes in a massive info-dump to catch up the audience, and then bravely does… absolutely nothing to resolve the conflict?

So we’re back in the Axis from “The Axis of Insanity” – not sure we ever needed to hear that story again, guys – and exploring alternate universes for a potential new Gallifrey that isn’t ravaged by a zombie-creating virus and the loss of the Matrix. In “Reborn,” author Gary Hopkins has the characters wander around one such Gallifrey, meet alternate versions of other characters… and then leave. It’s not that the concept isn’t interesting – a Gallifrey in which regenerations and TARDISes are for sale is certainly audacious – but Hopkins does absolutely nothing with it. Mary Tamm returns as an alternate Romana, one with a family, but we learn nothing from observing her. That’s the thing with alternate universe stories: they’re used to put a mirror up to our own universe so we can learn more about ourselves. “Reborn” doesn’t do this, it just says “Hey, wouldn’t this be funny?” Not really, no. Still, it’s good to hear the old characters again, and I’m not wholly disappointed that we got away from the turgid nonsense that was Gallifrey III for a while.